Viewing Man Pages for a Command

The Panther operating system includes hundreds of commands derived from the BSD UNIX operating system, that are accessible using the Terminal utility, and over 900 UNIX based programs. UNIX programs come packaged with their own help files. The help files or man (manual) pages are typically written by programmers for access by other programmers and system administrators. Unlike normal help for Macintosh applications, man pages do not appear in a help window, but in a normal text file format and they contain a wealth of information on the UNIX programs they support. Keep in mind that the instruction tends to be more technical, due to the nature of who they were designed for—other programmers and administrators. For instructions on how to use man pages, type man man, and then press Return, to see instructions on viewing text in the Terminal utility.

View Man Pages for a Command

Open the Applications folder, double-click the Utilities folder, and then double-click the Terminal icon.

Type man command name. (where command name is, type the name of the command), and then press Return.